Playboy model jailed over cocaine ring

Playboy covergirl Brandi Brandt has been sentenced to at least three and a half years in prison in NSW, Australia for her role in a cocaine importation conspiracy.

Brandt, best known for her failed marriage to Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx, was involved in a brazen US-Australia cocaine importation syndicate that hid packages of the drugs in toilets on passenger planes bound for Sydney in 2007.

She pleaded guilty to conspiring to import more than two kilograms of the drug and transferring more than 70 thousand dollars into bank accounts over the sale.

In sentencing Brandt on Friday, Judge Peter Zahra said her role in the criminal enterprise was "substantially lower" than her co-accused, including her former lover and stuntman Rusty Setser.

He could not be satisfied, he said, that she ever touched the drug packages or was aware of the quantities involved.

Sydney's District Court heard that the 45-year-old's childhood had been beset with drug use.

Her mother, Maria 'Brie' Darling, was a musician and as a child Brandt was surrounded by drug use.

By the time she was 12 or 13, Brandt herself had begun to abuse drink and drugs, and went off to live with her father.

While she was sober during her marriage to Sixx, the court heard the relationship's breakdown saw her return to drugs and alcohol.

Her subsequent relationship with Setser was marred by violence and heavy drug use, with Brandt telling a psychologist he was a "ticking time bomb" and that he encouraged her to "use more".